“Back up! …. Back up! Did you see that thing in the sendero on the left? Did you see it? Whoa stop! Don’t move! What is that thing?”
I looked down the sendero, then back at my hunting partner. He stared intently, but was a bit pale, like he had just seen or was seeing a ghost.
I again looked back down the sendero. I did see a javelina standing on the left edge about a hundred yards out. “That?” I said pointing at the little peccary. “You’ve seen hundreds of them on this place. It’s a javelina! What’s a matter with you? You sit in the sun too long this morning? Or did you have something with or in your coffee that I didn’t?”
“No, you idiot, I know what a javelina looks like, that’s not what I was talking about. Look way down the sendero about 400 yards. Did you see it?” he questioned.
“See what? I saw that deer walk across it about 200 yards away. You sure you weren’t doing a bit of nipping early this morning before I got up to fix coffee. There wasn’t anything down that sendero except the javelina up close and that doe that walked across. What is it with you? You’re pale as a bed sheet! You didn’t try any of that peyote you found the other day did you?”
“Even if I did I don’t think it would have caused me to see what I just did. I don’t believe it.” said by hunting partner wagging his head in a negative manner. “Could it have been?” he questioned.
“Could it have been what?”
“You didn’t see what I just saw?”
“Look, I’m taking you back to camp. Obviously you’ve either chewed on the wrong kind of weed, or having a heat stroke, or got into Uncle Ern’s private stash of Alabama home brew, cause there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary standing, crawling, flying or walking across that sendero except that javelina and doe a little farther out.”
My companion sat there with a bewildered look on his face, albeit a bit pale as well.
“Guess next thing you’re going to tell me what you saw was an alien with small pointed ears, great big eyes and three foot long tail.
“I.. I er I think I saw a 12 foot long lizard! It had to be that long because when I first saw it its head was in the brush on one side of the sendero and what looked to be its tail was in the brush on the other side. That sendero is 10 feet wide all the way to nearly the end of the pasture. I know, I laid it out myself and have bushhogged it numerous times. Whatever it was slithered across the sendero . When I first saw it, it looked like huge log lying across the sendero.”
At that point my companion looked me squarely in the eye. “I know you think I’m crazy. But I also know what I saw. Well maybe I don’t know exactly what it was, but whatever it was, I saw it! I grew up in the country and it takes a bunch to get me riled.”
“Well whatever it is or was is gone now. We just as well head into camp for lunch. I wanna go fish Gato Tank after we eat. It ain’t that far away from here, and maybe we’ll run into your “monster” again.”
After sandwiches and some fresh fruit, we gathered our fishing gear and headed to the Gato. I noticed all the way over to the big tank my companion was a bit jumpy, looking intently at any and everything that moved or to him had a suspicious look.
Needless to say we didn’t see anything of monstrous proportions. No huge snakes, no odd looking javelina or hogs, and certainly no 12 feet long lizards, like he had kept talking about over lunch.
I parked the Bad Boy Buggie on the west side of the tank. Moment later both my companion and I were intently flipping jigs trailing long worms along the edge of the bank.
I hooked into something stout, set the hook. But rather than take off at a fast pace whatever I had hooked just sort of moved away slowly. Drag screaming I started losing line. My first thought was I might have hooked into a huge catfish, or possibly an ancient snapping turtle.
I had purposely chosen a fishing rig with a 35 pound test line, knowing there were big bass and catfish in that lake that also had a whole lot of snags where a lesser test line might break if a fish got into them.
I reeled, but kept slowly losing line.
“Whatya got?” question my hunting partner.
“Dunno…but whatever it is, I think it’s got me more than I’ve got it.” I wondered too if perhaps I might have foul-hooked one of the monstrous water moccasins that lived in the pond. Immediately I hatched a plan. I knew my partner was not very fond of any kind of snakes and I doubted he had ever caught one on his rod and reel. Mmmmm?
“Hey, why don’t you come over here and fight this fish for me. My back is killing me right now. It’s probably one of those 12 pound bass, you know an old one that really doesn’t have much fight in it, but just likes to move slowly away. Didja ever catch a 12 pound bass?”
Before I could hardly move my hunting partner was right there to relieve me of my fishing rig and truly help me out, to save me from an aching back. I smiled widely, deep inside. Gotcha…
Finally it seemed whatever was on the end of the line stared wearing down a bit and my companion could take up some line. “Think I got him tired. Gotta net?”
“No…. I think you should just reach down and lip that big bass. I got my camera now and I’ll shoot a photo of you landing ol’ big himself.” Thinking of the funny picture I would get as the old water moccasin sort of spooked my companion. I nearly giggled out loud.
“Almost got him, he’s coming this way. Get ready with your camera.”
Just then not 6 feet from the bank up popped a monster’s head, mouth wide open, it looked to be at least 3 feet long and about a third as wide. I saw lots of sharp pointed teeth, just then my companion threw my expensive fishing rig at that mouth and started running and screaming like a little kid that had just been badly spooked by the devil himself. He ran right over the top of me sending my camera flying and thereby preventing me from getting photos, in-focus, out-of-focus, or otherwise.
As I watched the behemoth turn to swim away, with my rod and reel in its mouth, I wondered if perhaps the 12 plus foot alligator that had just been released into the Gato Tank could have been the same “all the way across the sendero” lizard my companion had seen.
I turned and watched as my companion sat on the roof of my Bad Boy Buggie, who by then was hurling bad names at me. He also kept saying something about how he thought he’d been fishing long enough for one day.
I have no idea why he was so upset, it wasn’t his fishing rig that now belonged to a 12 to 13 foot long alligator!
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